Some from Papua (contains "Tribal Dress" so possibly NSFW)
Discussion
Some from my recent trip to the Baliem Valley and Biak, in Papua (If, like me you have no idea where that is it's the Western part of New Guinea, joined to Papua New Guinea!). In short the Baliem Valley is pretty remote. We did an 8-day trek from Wamena into the "Grand Valley" staying in different Dani and Yali villages. Blinking amazing, but fairly hardwork. 40 deg heat, slippery mud slopes and no toilets to be seen for a week! We also had a few problems with the Police stopping us leaving the hotel due to the political protests, but that's another story!
All images Nikon D300 ( which is an absolutely amazing bit of kit. SO much better than the D80 I had previously.)
Apologies for the slight crinkle, they are natively 800px so I didn't bother resizing for PH 750px rule.
1. "Old man" (Tamron 17-50mm F2.8 @ 17mm, F3.5)
2. "Our Nation" (Sigma 10-20mm @ 12mm, F9)
3. "Decorated Children" (Sigma 70-200mm F2.8 EX HSM Macro II @ 200mm, F4)
4. "Dani Warrior" (Nikon 50mm F1.8 @ F1.8)
5. "Smoking" (Nikon 50mm F1.8 @ 3200 ISO F1.8)
6. "Mock War" (Sigma 10-20mm @ 20mm F6.3 )
Plenty more if you're still not bored here:
http://www.pbase.com/duncan_c/papua08
All images Nikon D300 ( which is an absolutely amazing bit of kit. SO much better than the D80 I had previously.)
Apologies for the slight crinkle, they are natively 800px so I didn't bother resizing for PH 750px rule.
1. "Old man" (Tamron 17-50mm F2.8 @ 17mm, F3.5)
2. "Our Nation" (Sigma 10-20mm @ 12mm, F9)
3. "Decorated Children" (Sigma 70-200mm F2.8 EX HSM Macro II @ 200mm, F4)
4. "Dani Warrior" (Nikon 50mm F1.8 @ F1.8)
5. "Smoking" (Nikon 50mm F1.8 @ 3200 ISO F1.8)
6. "Mock War" (Sigma 10-20mm @ 20mm F6.3 )
Plenty more if you're still not bored here:
http://www.pbase.com/duncan_c/papua08
I looked at a few of your pbase photos, and there are plenty more excellent shots 
This guy took some great shots while he was there: http://flickr.com/photos/mytripsmypics/sets/721575...
This guy took some great shots while he was there: http://flickr.com/photos/mytripsmypics/sets/721575...
The shots in that Flickr link are amasing! Was acutally in Papua (the Indonesian part of the Island), not PNG. Would love to visit PNG, but it's stupidly expensive. Maybe one day... The Dani and Yali we met were fairly subdued compared to those pictured - shame! I think I might start saving...
Cheers for the compliments, good to know the effort in lugging the camera back around was worth it. One of the aims of this trip was to make my portaits closer using a wider lens (and possibly capture some of the environment) rather than step back with a telephoto. Bit hit and miss, but luckily I didn't end up in anyones dinner pot!
The 3rd party lenses are okay. I struggle with the 10-20, mainly because I struggle to compose good enough pics with its mighty wide angle. I nearly didn't take it... (though I think we've finally bonded now). It tends to live ready with a polariser on ready, and the 17-50 without so can swap easily. 70-20mm is great, better close focus than the old Nikon 80-200 F2.8 I had, though bit soft at the long end (might need the AF- fine tune revising as I did this one in a hurry). Tamron 17-50mm F2.8 makes great pictures, but I don't like it! Dangerously sharp (possibly more so than even the 50mm F1.8...), did suffer a bit of CA (but the D300 seems to correct that) but the build quality is nasty and the AF slow. Light though. The front end wobbles on mine, think I must have taken a tap which doesn't inspire confidence as I don't recall doing it. The Sigma EX range as so much better finished.
All shots were processed from JPEG, either native Jpeg (when I was filling up cards fast and didn't want to shoot RAW) or extraced from the RAW using Instant Jpeg From RAW (great utility that produces perfect jpgs from the RAW) in Photoshop. In the case of the B&W's they are mostly shot with a polariser to increase sky contrast, then levels (in 16 bit), converted to B&W using the Channel Mixer to blend the amounts of R,G,B to adjust the contrast of the image to suit the skin colour / landscape (in the same way that we using to use a red filter on B&W landscapes to increase contrast etc) then given a slight sepia hue using HSB.
And Andy M - I'm impressed you remembered last years shots! Thanks!
Cheers for the compliments, good to know the effort in lugging the camera back around was worth it. One of the aims of this trip was to make my portaits closer using a wider lens (and possibly capture some of the environment) rather than step back with a telephoto. Bit hit and miss, but luckily I didn't end up in anyones dinner pot!
The 3rd party lenses are okay. I struggle with the 10-20, mainly because I struggle to compose good enough pics with its mighty wide angle. I nearly didn't take it... (though I think we've finally bonded now). It tends to live ready with a polariser on ready, and the 17-50 without so can swap easily. 70-20mm is great, better close focus than the old Nikon 80-200 F2.8 I had, though bit soft at the long end (might need the AF- fine tune revising as I did this one in a hurry). Tamron 17-50mm F2.8 makes great pictures, but I don't like it! Dangerously sharp (possibly more so than even the 50mm F1.8...), did suffer a bit of CA (but the D300 seems to correct that) but the build quality is nasty and the AF slow. Light though. The front end wobbles on mine, think I must have taken a tap which doesn't inspire confidence as I don't recall doing it. The Sigma EX range as so much better finished.
All shots were processed from JPEG, either native Jpeg (when I was filling up cards fast and didn't want to shoot RAW) or extraced from the RAW using Instant Jpeg From RAW (great utility that produces perfect jpgs from the RAW) in Photoshop. In the case of the B&W's they are mostly shot with a polariser to increase sky contrast, then levels (in 16 bit), converted to B&W using the Channel Mixer to blend the amounts of R,G,B to adjust the contrast of the image to suit the skin colour / landscape (in the same way that we using to use a red filter on B&W landscapes to increase contrast etc) then given a slight sepia hue using HSB.
And Andy M - I'm impressed you remembered last years shots! Thanks!
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